WELLINGTON Heath is in an Area of Outstanding Beauty. But in less enlightened times, the neighbourhood was labelled “Hell on Earth”. Many of the men working on the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal and the Ledbury Railway Viaduct lived rough in the village and it gained a formidable reputation for drunkenness and fighting.

A lot of “Sally Tree Cider”, made from the willow tree, found its way into the locality; and its ready availability frequently left devotees wandering about their daily business in a drunken stupor.

The Swallow, an aptly named old cider house at point two on our winter walk, attracted a bevy of ne’er-do-wells to its portals in the 1870s. Here “there were good fighting, big men, six footers, some born here and some come”.

But The Swallow was soon closed when the new landowner James Charles Hewitt moved into Hope End. Having “taken the pledge”, he immediately turned the drinking parlour into his estate laundry. He formed a branch of the Church of England Temperance Society, and by 1897 it boasted 85 members; but not all of the villagers fell into the fold, and the majority carried on drinking either cider or beer. The Farmer’s Arms duly became the headquarters of the “opposition”.

At Hope End itself, there have been three main houses through the ages. The original Georgian house was built by Basil Prichard in the direction of the higher, western section of the estate towards Oyster Hill (our point 4).

The park was probably formed in the 1750s, and deer were generally retained by a fence called a pale. This was made from tall, cleft oak stakes set on a broad, high earth bank with an internal ditch. The northern limit of the 18th and 19th century park was Oyster Hill with its spectacular views to the Clee Hills, Radnor Forest and The Black Mountains; as well as a good perspective back over the park itself. By the end of the 19th century, the summit of Oyster Hill was outside the Hope End estate.

When Edward Moulton-Barrett moved from Durham to Hope End, he converted the Prichard house into stables. Immediately to the south-east he built an opulent country home. Largely finished by 1815, it was one of the few houses to be built entirely in an oriental, Moorish style, complete with domes and minarets. It looked out on to 472 acres of parkland, flower gardens, artificial ponds and fine lawns with strutting peacocks. It was in these sumptuous landscaped surroundings that the precocious poet Elizabeth Barrett grew up.

Green the land is where my daily

Steps in Jocund childhood played”.

When the abstemious Hewitt came to Hope End he demolished the Moulton-Barrett extravagance and built a large new stone house on high ground about 250m to the north; all that survives of the home where Elizabeth spent her first 23 years is the gateway and a few 'Eastern' fragments. After marriage to Robert Browning in 1846, Elizabeth decamped to Italy and became estranged from her father. She never would return to those haunts at Hope End which intoxicated her earliest writing. They had been the pale years of Elizabeth Barrett, before Browning.

WELLINGTON HEATH and HOPE END

Village, country lane, open hillside, wood edge paths, parkland. Great views.

3¾ mile easier than moderate walk. 2 stiles. 1 steady and 1 short but sharp climb. Terra firma.

Public Transport: Bus no. 675 from Ledbury to points 1 or 2.

Map: OS Explorer 190.

THE ROUTE.

1. Farmers Arms, Wellington Heath. From the car park, TL past Pool Piece and telephone box up The Common (road). Climb up to the bus stop at the top. (The Becks on the way up is where a highwayman who robbed the Colwall coach was once said to have hidden his loot). TR along road.

2. Ye Olde Cider House. Pass The Swallow and Swallow Farm Stables. At the Nightingales junction, keep ahead (L) along the quiet country road for Colwall and Coddington. Follow Raycomb Lane, with fine views (L) to the Black Mountains, Radnor Forest, over Coddington Church and to the Clee Hills. After one mile, bend slightly right and climb a little (with Woolhope Dome directly behind your back) to a crest where the road levels.

3. Coombe Hill. Leave road and turn very sharp right on yourself along the wide aggregate footpath. There is a circular concrete construction on left. Take higher R fork and, after 120m, cross Herefordshire Trail stile next to gate. Go through gateway for 30m to marker post. Bear R quite steeply up bank (HT) towards trig. point which quickly comes into view on open hillside above. Climb about 180 paces to it and another 50m to seat beyond.

4. Oyster Hill. Take in the easily attained wonderful views which are almost 360 degrees. Now go ahead very slightly right from your original line between dead tree and fence elbow, 30m through wooden gate and down the old deer park boundary with fence left and trees of Berrington Wood right. Follow fence with Hope End Estate on your left through walkers’ gate and ahead to skirt three fenced young trees. (Walled garden down to left). Bend L through parkland, then bend R down to cross the dog-friendly stile at Upper House.

5. Hope End, Upper Lodge. Go forward a few steps and TL along the road, with Hope End Stables R. Pass Tattersalls with wonderful views opening up across Wellington Heath to Ledbury Viaduct, Marcle Ridge and Sugar Loaf. Go ¼ mile along and down this road to a point where it levels a few paces past Private Property drive (on left) to reach two footpaths on right. TR off road through gap along wide, tree-lined, lower footpath (CW56). After about 300 paces, kink down to R to keep fence on R. Follow this west edge of Frith Wood to the point where the orchard on your right ends.

6. Frith Wood. Gate. TR through gate down two steps, down R edge/hedge through next gate and go ahead along the grassy, tree-lined HT footpath. Go through wooden gate, cross f/bridge, along path channel and through walkers’ gate. Head for t/pole in field, through gate other side, and along hedge-lined path to The Common at Dogberry. Pub is opposite.